The North East Emerging Artist Award

Sculptor Rachel’s work featured cast pewter bats suspended by a steel rig, representing the bats that have made the hall their home since the fire of 1822. The piece was suspended in the Entrance Hall, where the bats hibernate in winter.

Non-binary/trans artist Jordan manipulated metals, latex, and silicone to create a sculpture and sound installation that functioned as abstract forms of communication. Their Aeolian harp and musical composition provided new speculation on the history and fantasy of the Delavals and was based in the Saloon.

Jacob’s work explored the contributions made by many people to keep the hall running. Using his preferred medium of upcycled materials from various sources including the hall’s lost property box, Jacob created a series of hanging textile quilts, each highlighting an area of work. Jacob's work was in the Kitchen Passage between the Entrance Hall and the West Wing.

Wambui’s immersive audio journey encouraged us to imagine the future of Seaton Delaval Hall, with an invitation to the audience to share their hopes for each other and the hall, connecting strangers now and ones to come. Their work was heard in the Gilt Parlour, off the Entrance Hall.

Newcastle-based audio producer Chantal and photographer Dami's work amplified the voices of the Global Majority living in the North East. The project was a direct response to the 1770 painting 'John Delaval (1756-1775) as a Boy and an Unidentified Attendant'. The painting depicts a young John Delaval with an unknown Black page boy, on display in the West Wing. There is no evidence of the background or history of this page, and New Borders reimagined the artwork with a contemporary context by giving the usually unheard voice an identity using photography and audio in an exhibition in the Stables.

Dust & Diamonds was on display in the Basement’s Beer Cellar, drawing inspiration from the Delavals’ industrial income streams, with a cast glass saltshaker. Taking decorative cues from the ‘pepper-pot’ finials on the hall’s roof, a finial disco-ball was counterpart to the saltshaker, dramatising the installation while shedding light on the resources that enabled parties and pleasure.

South-Tyneside based designer-maker and architect Edmond Salter’s Vanbrugh Croquet is an interactive outdoor game which involves hitting wooden balls with a mallet through a series of architectural ‘hoops’ inspired by Sir John Vanbrugh’s Seaton Delaval Hall and architectural models. Visitors were able to play Vanbrugh Croquet on the Lost Wing Lawn next to the Central Hall. Vanbrugh Croquet was a big hit with visitors and returned to the hall for the summer holidays in 2023.

The Big Wig satirised the powdered wig, a monument and critique of excess. Created from hand-processed nettle cordage and reclaimed wigs, it celebrated the freedom to express without restraint and invited visitors to sit beneath it to imagine themselves at one of the Delavals’ infamously extravagant parties. The Big Wig was in front of the western windows in the Saloon.

Before making art, Wilfred spent several years as a labourer and that hands-on work still shapes how he thinks and creates. The Seaton Stones was an interactive stone carving installation inspired by the Delaval family and the hall’s history. Part of the carving process took place on site, allowing visitors to watch the work unfold.

Imagining a commission from Rhoda Delaval, eldest of ‘The Gay Delavals’ and an accomplished artist, Lucy transformed charity shop ceramics into Delaval Ware, a hand-painted 52-piece collection. Created exclusively to honour the Delaval women, the work records the lives of each female family member. Through these pieces, Lucy reclaims and celebrates their significance within a lineage shaped by male succession and inherited wealth.